Review: Event Horizon (1997)

People in the Movie:  Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill

Director:  Paul Anderson

Pigeonhole:  Horror / Sci-Fi

The Basics: Set in 2047, a rescue crew aboard the spaceship Louis & Clark proceeds to the orbit of Neptune having received a distress signal from another ship called Event Horizon.  Dr. William Weir (Neill) informs the crew that 7 years earlier the Event Horizon disappeared on its maiden voyage while testing a “gravity drive” which he had designed and built.  No one knew where Event Horizon has been, and it was probably better that way.      

Recommendation:  This is a very underrated horror film, with some very intense scenes.  ‘R’ rating is for violence, gore, and brief nudity.

My Take:  The first time I saw this movie, I admittedly did not think that much of it, because I went into with wrong expectations – thinking of it more as sci-fi action movie, as opposed to a horror movie set in space.  Having seen it again several times, I really like the way it plays out as “haunted house” type horror film, and while teasing the audience with brief scary images of what happened, it does not bathe us in the gore of more recent horror films. 

**spoiler alert** The movie has nice crescendo of intensity from start to finish.  Upon arrival and boarding of the Event Horizon, things start off small; sounds, light and dark, artifacts left from the first crew, but then gradually build as the reveal is made: upon activation of the gravity drive during the maiden voyage, the ship ended up in a “hell dimension” where the original crew were tortured and mutilated to death (or possessed and proceeded to torture and mutilate themselves and each other).  The Event Horizon has now returned from this dimension, itself possessed, and wanting to get back to the aforementioned place of evil.  The crew of the Louis & Clark begins experiencing the horrors of their own fears and regrets in life, and the “ghost in the machine” also begins to lash out at them in physical ways, as well.  The Louis & Clark is destroyed, and the crew is killed off one at a time.  To top it off there is limited breathable air left, so decisions are made how the remaining crew is to survive this journey of consuming madness.  The “evil” on Event Horizon, however, does not agree with their plan.

The original cut of this film submitted to the MPAA was 130 minutes.  It is presently 95 minutes.  I have wondered exactly how much of this story was lost on the cutting room floor.  While it is a good entertaining film right now, I feel like there could have been true horror movie greatness that will never be seen.  Sadly, the “lost footage” has supposedly been destroyed so there will not be a director’s cut of this film surfacing.

Check out the extra featurettes on the DVD and Blu-Ray versions of what “could have been”.

Final Thought/Extras/For Fun: The ship was modeled after Notre Dame Cathedral… The ending was re-filmed twice after test audiences reactions...